Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1/8
This is a Young Avengers title in everything but name. It's written exactly as if it were just a continuation of the Young Avengers story, and the Avengers are only in there about as much as they were in the first two stories. This is a good thing for me since I rather like the Young Avengers.
Allan Heinberg on writing with some nicely worked in exposition and snark. Jim Cheung is on art, and he;s quite a good artist despite his tendency to make everybody float in space during group shots and drawing everybody with the same face. The colouring is pretty decent, and one thing I like is that it changes depending on the quality of light, so good job Justin Ponsor.
Alright! So this issue starts with an intro page which has a really corny description of the Young Avengers that I skimmed the first time because cringe. It then warns about discrepancies. Excellent. MST2K mantra here we go! And seriously dudes, don't apologize for not putting Steve in his new outfit because his new outfit isn't that good. Although, maybe Cheung could've pulled it off... I just like how aware they are of the nitpicky nature of their audience.
So there's a short introductory scene with the YA fighting some crazy homophobic white supremacists, with a nice lampshade on the nature of the team, what with Billy and Teddy going out and Patriot being black and all. The little snarky lampshade Hawkeye pulls instantly warms me to the book, making me remember how much I like the Young Avengers.
Hulkling kisses one of the Sons of the Serpent on the cheek to piss him off. I think I might love this book.
The Avengers show up! Serpent dudes take Hulkling hostage! Wiccan gets pissed off and releases a surge of knocks them all comatose and freaks out the Avengers like whoa. (Counting down jokes about "It wasn't the nuke that went off... it was Wiccan" in three, two, one...)
Que pages of the YA and Avengers bickering about Billy and his powers. Them bickering is a staple of YA so I don't really need to describe it. What does happen is the Avengers tell the YA about the Scarlet Witch and House of M. Oooo. And Billy's all like "She was totally brainwashed or something right?" and the Avengers were all "No she just went crazy."
Steve Rogers forces Billy to come live at the Avengers mansion until they can figure his freaky powers out. Excellent dickery there, Steve. Teddy comes along for the ride because, you know, boyfriend. Billy and Teddy have a cute moment that Speed totally cockblocks by coming to 'rescue' them. "Making out" my ass. Putting a hand on a cheek does not "making out" make.
Anyway, so the Young Avengers bust them out and they decide to go looking for Scarlet Witch. There's a nice moment with Cassie and the whole Scarlet Witch-killed-my-dad-maybe-she-can-bring-him-back (after all, she did bring back a couple of people already).
And surprise reveal of the issue that I won't give away! Let's just say that I gasped out loud, yet if makes perfect sense. Somebody else is coming on their mission, and they're awesome.
Secret Six #23
Pretty cover. Little bit stiff, though.
Alright, so John Ostrander on writing. The quality drops accordingly whenever Gail Simone isn't writing. I don't think he quite gets Ragdoll's "voice", and his dialogue is too... plain, I guess. I miss Gail's wit. Do I have any real complaints other than "It's not Gail"? Hrm.
RB Silva on art. Decent enough, except for the heads. My god, the heads look lopsided and always slightly too small for the body, Jeannette's face was bothering me the entire time, and the eyes are all really small except on Ragdoll.
Oh jeeze, I'm sorry, but you should fire your plastic surgeon.
So the story starts with a couple of dudes fighting each other, and the minute they start talking I'm all "These guys are douches, I hate them already. Am I supposed to hate them? I hope so, 'cause I do." Luckily, I'm right.
They talk and they talk and I'm just waiting for the heroe- err, protagonists to arrive. Seriously, can this intro get any more frustrating? Then a couple pages of the Six snarking to each other on a plane before they're kidnapped, separated and hunted.
Well, they defeat the hunters so easily it was almost embarrassing. Almost, until I remembered fuck those guys. The six kills them all and that's the issue.
Yeah, boring.
Thor And the Warrior's Four #4/4
1) I really like Gurhihuru's art. It's clean, it's cute, it's nice, it's expressive, it's dynamic. My life is now a better having seen Baby!Asgardians. Also, there's a couple of fun touches, like Beta Ray Bill's hair.
Hehehehehe
2) Alex Zalben is a decent writer, and his plotting is pretty good. The pacing is great, and the emotion is good. This isn't somebody who writes a kid's comic and sleeps on the job. So well done.
3) I love this comic.
4) This comic makes me happy.
5) This comic isn't afraid to have a couple of emotional punches. Alex's character gets a couple of really good ones this issue.
6) It was worth getting the issues for the covers. Hee.
7) Coleen Coover is awesome. That is all.
Atomic Robo v.4 #4/4
See, one of these days I'm going to do a recommendation for Atomic Robo because it has recently become one of my favorite comics ever.
Last issue had Dr. Dinosaur, and I mean, it's hard to live up to Dr. Dinosaur. But this issue tries admirably. Saying this is "not the best Atomic Robo issue" is like saying that "Cars is not the best Pixar Movie" or "Hush isn't the best Batvillain" or something. Still pretty awesome.
A ghost turns up at Tesladyne (1999), and tests are done on the poor newb who spotted it. Then they do some tests on the ghost with a checklist as a framing device. "Is it incorporeal?" ect. They decide the ghost is impossible.
Atomic Robo keeps running into impossible things.
Turns out uh shadow from time is Thomas Edison, and him and Robo get into a hilarious pointing and shouting match before finally informing Edison that he died some years ago.
It looks like Thomas Edison might be a recurring villain.
And that's awesome
Parody sketch of the week!
Stealin' jokes from Yahtzee...
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